My son Joey Dougherty, fellow guide Ryan Schmidt and I left for Brown's Clearwater West Lodge on Monday morning March 12th. The weather forecast was for light rain on Monday then beautiful sunny skies for the remainder of our fishing trip. We would be using snowmobiles even with the 60 degrees temperatures.
I have been going to Brown's every year since 1978. Barry Brown has become a close friend of mine. Brown's supply you with endless quantities of true Canadian hospitality. You pull into the lodge and out comes Barry with his endless smile and firm hand shake. We would be fishing White Otter Lake in the White Otter Provincial Park, Clearwater West and Grey Trout Lakes. I am pretty spoiled with Rainy Lakes unending beauty but this little corner of the world northwest of Atikokan, Ontario is truly a wonder of the world. The water is gin clear throughout and every wander of the eyes sees unbelievable scenery.
Lake Trout was our targeted specie and they did not let us down. We caught trout using tube jigs on all three lakes some at twenty feet and others from 70 to 100 feet deep. Size was very nice, no giants but a lot of trout from 6-10 pounds. Believe me if you are a winter walleye, crappie or perch angler you have not ever experienced anything like the fight of a lake trout through the ice. Sometimes they shoot out right from under the ice and cream your jig scaring the living daylights out of the heartiest souls.
After the first day of light rain the sun came out and the fishing and scenery was magical. The snowmobiles operated more like jet boats than snowmobiles. Some areas had 2-5 inches of standing water, rubber boots were the order of the trip. When the snow melts fast like it did this year the standing water runs back down the drilled out fishing holes almost like a storm sewer. Ryan Schmidt was fishing in one of the drain holes and caught a trout. He went to release the laker and instead of going back down the hole it took off under the ice and showed up fifteen minutes later and then went down the whole.
We had super meals of fresh lake each evening after long days of fishing. One thing about March is the days are longer than January providing much more fishing time. Wednesday afternoon came to fast, going home is always hard to do. Barry was at the landing waiting for our 4:30 PM return. Stories were told, and with a glance over the shoulder looking at Clearwater West you could tell none of us wanted to go home. We thanked Barry for the great time and it was off to International Falls. I wasn't down the road a hundred yards and Joey asked if we will be able to return this spring!
